page_title: Ben-Hur (play)
section_title: Adaptations
hierarchical_section_title: Ben-Hur (play) / Adaptations
caption_attribution_description: English: Ben-Hur: Klaw &amp; Erlanger's Stupendous Production, theatrical poster for a production of William Young's adaptation of Lew Wallace's Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ.
context_page_description: Ben-Hur was an 1899 theatrical adaption of the novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace. The story was dramatized by William W. Young and produced by Marc Klaw and A. L. Erlanger. The stage production was notable for its elaborate use of spectacle, including live horses for the famous chariot race. The hippodrama had six acts with incidental music written by American composer Edgar Stillman Kelley. The stage production opened at the Broadway Theater in New York City on November 29, 1899, and became a hit Broadway show. Traveling versions of the production, including a national tour that ran for twenty-one years, played in the United States, Great Britain, and Australia. By the end of its run in April 1920, the play had been seen by more than twenty million people and earned over $10 million at the box office. There have been other stage adaptations of Wallace's novel, as well as several motion picture versions.
context_section_description: There have been other stage adaptations since the initial production in 1899, including a London production staged in 2009 at the O2 arena featuring a live chariot race.
  The book was also adapted for motion pictures in 1907, 1925, 1959, 2003, 2016, and as an American television miniseries in 2010. The 1959 film adaptation, starring Charlton Heston and featuring the famous chariot race, won a record eleven Academy Awards and was the top-grossing film of 1960.
caption: A 1901 poster for a production at the Illinois Theater in Chicago
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